Can Education be Interactive and Cost Effective?
Long gone are the days of slate and chalk, classrooms are often Wi-Fi enabled and students use laptops, tablets and interactive whiteboards to complete their work. It’s not just students who rely on technology to complete their work, teachers also use a range of devices as basic teaching tools: in many educations institutions, learning could not happen without them.
Over the last ten years, many schools and institutions have heavily invested in new, interactive technologies to help support student learning needs and to help the schools themselves remain competitive.
But how do schools and universities ensure that their staff and students can access the latest technology and stay within budget? And how do those with multiple campuses manage large numbers of technological assets?
One university that we currently work with has over 20,000 students over multiple campuses within Australia. With such a wide reach, it’s important that their staff and students have access to the technology and equipment they need, while also being able to track their assets. A task that can be very time-consuming.
To solve this issue, we developed a flexible equipment leasing solution to cover a range of equipment and allow for add-ons and upgrades as the university’s needs change.
To track equipment, a tailor-made online contract management system (OCM) was provided so that the university and produce real-time reporting. By having the reporting function, the university is able to forecast and budget for leased equipment in the future.
Another educational institute we work with specialises in medical childhood research and needed to acquire specialist equipment to do its ground-breaking research, without drawing on the school’s precious pool of capital. In the past, the school had spent up to $3 million a year of its own funds on new equipment. This had the potential to leave them with obsolete technology later on and reduce their cash flow.
Having new equipment not only helps the institute attract research grants and talent, but helps shape patients outcomes and improve their quality of life. Using outdated and inefficient equipment can have drastic repercussions across the entire hospital.
To reduce the organisation’s reliance on its own financial resources, a bespoke capital solution was created, allowing the company to acquire new assets/equipment while keeping the infrastructure off its balance sheet.
The solution comprised a sale-and-rent-back (SARB) agreement, whereby ownership of the assets was transferred to Maia, with the business agreeing to regular payments for ongoing use of the equipment. This resulted in an immediate cash injection for the business giving them the freedom to invest in other areas of the hospital and continue their life-saving work.
There are many other ways to approach asset finance, and it doesn’t always need to be through a traditional bank.
Education is important to everyone, no matter where you’re from or what field you work in. It gives people the opportunity to better their own lives, and for some, it’s an opportunity to benefit someone else’s.
Don’t let outdated technology get the best of your capabilities, or that of your school, university or college. Accessing alternative funding for new technology could be easier than you think.
Maia Financial is a leading, independent provider of capital solutions. We specialise in Asset Finance, Asset Management and Vendor and Intermediary services. Established more than 25 years ago, we have financed billions of dollars’ worth of assets, supporting the capital needs across various sectors (including education financing for schools and universities) and government entitles across Australia and New Zealand.
